Adventures in Taste Testing

I have a friend here (Lynn, from Canada) who has an advanced degree in nutrition. She works for a food company here, among other things, as a taste tester (when she isn't rescuing 23 tons of rice that just failed quality control from being dumped in the ocean).

Things I learned about taste testing:

• You don't just get to taste gourmet food. They try to pressure you into tasting things like pig-kidney soup. (When they were cooking it, the whole suite stunk like piss).
• When you're doing a taste test, they actually give you a barf bag (great faith in their product, eh?)
• There are 6 soi dogs who hang out in the back alley (all of them fat) whom they take the uneaten taste-test food to. Lynn says they tend to agree with her whether something's good or inedibile.

Seriously, if your product fails the Soi Dog taste test, it's time to leave the food industry and work at the mall for awhile.